


Support Pride

by asimplewalk



Series: Prompt Jar [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Discussion of Sex Toys, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Mild Language, Still not enough glitter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-22
Updated: 2015-02-22
Packaged: 2018-03-14 15:40:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3416186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asimplewalk/pseuds/asimplewalk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy is the best PR manager. And the New York Pride Rally is one of those nebulous "public support" things that turns into a spectacle.</p><p>Steve still doesn't give a fuck about fame, either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Support Pride

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bulmaveg_Otaku](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bulmaveg_Otaku/gifts).



> For [bulmavegotaku](http://bulmavegotaku.tumblr.com) on tumblr, who prompted me for a wintershock "political demonstration au, or not au if you feel like it." This is take two. Unbeta'd. All mistakes and story are mine, characters and setting belonging to Marvel.

The thing about the Avengers living in New York, is that they get asked to show up to various “acceptable” events that are done. And that if they go to ones that aren’t on that list, it’s a huge deal and splattered across the news and gossip sources.

Darcy, however, is even faster and more capable of controlling the fallout than Hill, Pepper, or Natasha. She’s sitting in Tony’s workshop, on a back counter by the sink and the currently unused blender, with a licorice string dangling out of her mouth tapping away at two tablets, her phone, and a few projected hologram screens. She’d convinced Tony to swap Metallica for Avenged Sevenfold in an epic argument that no one had expected her to win.

At the moment, she’s responding to the reactions to the latest explosion of positive and negative news. Bruce and Jane and Thor had done a walk to raise awareness and promote funding for autism, and Tony had been caught, fortunately only metaphorically, with his pants down in DC by saying that he wouldn’t be commenting on Mutant Rights and the Superhero Registration Act until after he had all the details.

Bucky comes down and happily looks around. This is music that he can get behind, and isn’t the same predictable soundtrack. It means his girl is nearby. Business first, he brings the comms over to Tony and they run through his observations for his own. Steve had neatly jotted his down, and Clint had simply rattled his off to JARVIS as he went. They had spent the day testing the expanded range on the system, and the new ones were a lot more comfortable than the last.

When Tony’s got all the information he needs (“Why couldn’t you do what Barton did. Do that next time. It’s faster, easier, and you won’t forget something.”), Bucky goes to where Darcy has set herself up, and steals a piece of the candy she’s eating. He waits until she acknowledges him, because he’s learned better than to interrupt her when she’s buried in the mental work that she’s doing. 

Darcy finally waves off the hologram screens and pulls out one of her ear buds, he lets her pull him in for a quick kiss. “You are gonna start a war wearing headphones instead of listening to the music you made Stark play, sweetheart.” He murmurs the words against her cheek as she sets about swiping the last of the dust and dirt she can from where he’d been ‘parkouring’ and ‘slinking’ around town to be sure that the signal could transmit anywhere he’d need to get to in order to be effective. 

“Pipes in the music, but I also hear all the audio clips involving you guys without him feeling the need to comment on everything.” She’s great at her job, and it makes Bucky smile. “So, there is a lot of speculation about whether or not you are going to show up to the Pride Rally this year like Steve and Tony have in the past.”

“Are they trying to guess the yes or no of everyone else, too?” He takes another one of the red gummy threads from the package. Notices she’s drinking a Sprite, so he bites off the ends and uses the hollow candy as a straw.

“Oh you are such a goomba. Gimme,” She sips through the candy just as he had and then continues, “Yeah. There are some things that I’ll need to brief any newbies on if you decide to. I mean, Clint already knows everything, but he trawls Reddit almost as much as I am paid to.” She shrugs and kicks her feet on either side of his legs.

“Hey, Cradle Robber, come and help me lift this, DUM-E is being useless again!” Tony yells from the other side of the lab. The couple roll their eyes and he presses a quick kiss to her temple before leaving her to continue her work.

-

Bucky is staring at the tablet that Darcy had handed him that night, and is a little shocked at how carefree and liberal sex and sexuality is these days, even with how much he’s seen evidence of it already. He reads and rereads the tips and concerns and info dumped in his lap while they sit and watch the 1981 Clash of the Titans movie. Darcy is actually curled so that her face is pressed into his hip while she fights off a tension headache. Her hair is pinned in a loose, wild bun so that strands of hair aren’t going to get stuck in the joints of the metal hand as he gently works away the twists and kinks in the muscles of her neck and shoulders.

“So, if anyone asks about sex toys, my best bet is to give a coy little smile and tell them that my body is my business and their body is theirs, and consenting adults can do as they please?” He’s trying to figure out why anyone would so bluntly just ask someone, a stranger even, so casually about such intimate things. 

“It’s in the brief, James.” The frustrated-and-immensely-done-with-your-shit tone is one that the man knows better than to mess with. And yet...

“This is a good time as any to maybe ask about your thoughts on-” He tries, he really does, to ask her.

“No, James. I am not discussing toys and kinks when my head hurts and you are watching this masterpiece. Let me pretend to sleep.” Her voice is more petulant and tired now, so he lets it go.  
“I’m putting the tablet down, taking you back to my room, grabbing some oil, and taking out my day on your body.” He sets about to do just that.

“Oh, no, strong hands rubbing me down to make me feel better. Danger,Will Robinson!” She lets him turn the movie off and carry her.

-

They are in the middle of a crowd of people, listening to people speak, and Darcy is up on Bucky’s shoulders. He is pretty sure that Tony’s going to have to take the arm off of him and vacuum and flush and vacuum it out to get all the sparkly, gritty stuff off of him. It’s one thing to have it on his hands because he’d gotten dragged into craft time with her, Steve, Jane, and Thor; this is just ridiculous.

Natasha is settled comfortably on Steve’s shoulders, and Clint at some point had disappeared with Sam only to show up covered in neon paint in a full rainbow. The speech ends, and another person gets up. This time, it’s an older woman talking about transitioning to female after years of hiding her gender and sexual identity in the Marines. Darcy has been patiently braiding his hair back (he keeps meaning to go and get a haircut, and then she’ll have fun playing with it. After that first few, it kinda got away from him to that original length again) as this goes on. He looks over at Steve who has a big smile on his face.

When the sweet woman is handed a card when she’s done to introduce the next speaker, everyone is still cheering for her. Darcy and Nat are helped off their shoulders and the two soldiers are cheering the loudest. The speaker nearly cries when she spots them, and then actually starts to, laughing all the while, when she reads the card. “I am pleased to say that the next person speaking is Captain Steven Rogers, of the 107th!” 

Steve doesn’t bother with the stairs to the platform after slipping to the front of the crowd (not that he had more than twenty yards to go from where they were on the sidewalk), just leaps majestically up next to her, and when she goes for a handshake, instead hugs her. The crowd cheers when he taps his cheek, and she smacks a lipstick print above the purple one that Darcy had left on him earlier. Pepper and Natasha had done the same that morning before they had left the Tower, with each of the guys. 

“Hey, so, as shocking as this might be, this lady isn’t the first I’ve met, and not even since joining the army seventy five years ago, to go through this sort of thing!” The guy has a talent for public speaking, and it’s all light-hearted and conversational, like he’s sitting at a bar chatting with you over a beer. He talks about growing up in their era, and living with Bucky in the neighborhood that they had. About all the good people they’d known.

no-one is shocked when he still manages not to hint at or disclose his own identity on such matters.

Bucky keeps Darcy tucked in next to him, and the other three are giggling. He notices that Nat and Sam have their comms in, the telltale glow from Clint’s hearing aids that he’s getting a transmission (communications are built in), that Steve was wearing his (which was normal for him doing public events). He pulls his earpiece out of his pocket and taps it on, immediately figuring out why even Steve is now starting to smile through his words. Sam slinks off at Tony’s cue in their ears.

At the end of the ten minute spiel, there is a loud crack and three separate Iron man suits - no, Iron Man, Iron Patriot, and Rescue all come streaking up the street between the buildings, Sam following to complete the diamond formation in the EXO, and their repulsors are trailing glitter and glowing in different colors. All four dump confetti and more glitter out over the crowd, eliciting laughter and cheers.

“This event will be a great one to work on after the fact, because it’s just one big flip of the bird at the haters.” She grabs Bucky’s hands and dances in place as they wait for their friend to return to their spot on the sidelines.

-

Darcy comes sprinting in, cackling, to the lab and Tony, Dr. Ross, and Bucky all look up, curious. Pepper comes in a moment later, smiling as well. “Go on Darcy, give them the good news!”

“Bill O'Reilly just called Captain America a poor example of American Values. I think he’s going to have a heart attack tonight when Steve does the anti-immigration skit on The Daily Show in Gaelic!” She bounces over and curls her arms around Bucky’s waist where he’s sitting on the table. He curls his arm around her, while Betty carefully checks the connectors in his other, where it is currently all freshly cleaned and laid out on the table before they reattach it.

“We can pray, can’t we?” He chuckles and then swears starts griping in Yiddish at the good doc and Tony while they prod at the socket.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, this one came out much sweeter, funnier and happier than last night's take at the prompt. I am so happy that I recieved it, and you are a bab for sending it to me!
> 
> Come and howl at me over on [tumblr](http://www.crownsandashes.tumblr.com).


End file.
